PERSONIFIERAD POLITIK I EN DIGITAL ERA. En kvantitativ innehållsanalys om personifiering hos svenska partiledare på Instagram och TikTok

Abstract

Social media has transformed political communication by creating new opportunities for politicians to communicate directly with voters and shape their public image through textual and visual expressions. In this changing media landscape, social media has emerged as a central arena for politicians, reducing the traditional gatekeeping role held by established news outlets. As a result, social media platforms have contributed to increasingly personalized forms of political communication, where the boundaries between professional and personal representation have become less distinct. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how Swedish party leaders present themselves on Instagram and TikTok through language use, tone and visual presentation in relation to political personalization. Through an analytic comparison between Instagram and TikTok, the study highlights both similarities and differences in how party leaders construct their self-presentation, and how platform-specific features are used to shape their public identities. The study builds on Van Aelst's et al (2011) theory of political personalization to examine how political self-presentation is expressed on social media, focusing on the dimensions of individualization and privatization. Previous research has primarily examined political personalization on established social media platforms while TikTok has not been extensively examined. In addition, studies combining tone and language use with visual presentation remain limited. This study therefore contributes to a broader understanding of how political personalization is expressed across different social media environments by examining Instagram and TikTok in a Swedish political context. To address this, the study applied a quantitative content analysis as the most appropriate methodological approach to identify recurring patterns. The data consisted of posts published on the personal Instagram and TikTok accounts of five different Swedish party leaders, collected over a one month period in the run up to the 2026 election year. The material was systematically coded using a predefined codebook containing variables relevant to the study. The results indicate that Swedish party leaders' self-presentation is largely strategic and primarily centered on professionalism and a formal tone, with limited use of private or emotional content. Their communication primarily emphasizes political roles and issue-oriented topics rather than personal or informal expression. In conclusion, the findings suggest that political personalization among the party leaders is mainly expressed through individualization rather than privatization.